Relief, not reefer, is reason for bill

It's nothing more than coincidence that Cheech and Chong are coming to Wisconsin next week just as a bill to legalize medical marijuana begins to make its way through the Legislature.

The comedians' "Light Up America" tour celebrates the party-down use of the psychoactive plant.

That's definitely not what the bill he authored is about, Sen. John Erpenbach, a Democrat from Waunakee, told me Thursday.

It's time to stop slapping a criminal label on seriously ill people who benefit from puffing pot as medicine with the blessing of their doctors.

"I think people are saying that medical marijuana being against the law is kind of ridiculous now," Erpenbach said.

Thirteen states and several other countries have said so. Last year in Michigan, the law passed in every county, and in the first six months, the state issued about 5,000 certificates to qualified medical users, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Gov. Jim Doyle has said he supports the change, and the Justice Department under President Barack Obama announced it will stop chasing suppliers and users of state-approved medical marijuana.

That still leaves plenty of people for the police to lock up in the interminable and expensive war on weed. Erpenbach said he's increasingly urged by Wisconsinites to go ahead and legalize marijuana for adult use. He knows this is the slippery slope that opponents of medical marijuana fear.

For now, all he's talking about is medicinal use.

"We're not talking about everybody here, first of all. Second, we're talking that you have to get a doctor's note, and the condition you're dealing with has to qualify," he said.

Nonprofit dispensaries known as compassion centers would sell up to 3 ounces of marijuana to qualifying patients, or the patients could grow up to 12 plants of their own.

This has gotten a little crazy in Los Angeles and Denver, where dispensaries have sprung up in large numbers, and sometimes with neon pot leaves in the front windows. Erpenbach said sellers here would be licensed and regulated by the state, and buyers would have to register.

"It's not like you're going to be walking down State Street in Madison or walking in downtown Milwaukee and there's going to be compassion centers or dispensaries every other door. I just don't think that's going to happen," he said.

The state may want to keep an eye on the reefer marketplace. Some doctors in California have developed a reputation as an easy yes, handing out prescriptions to people with any pain, anxiety or difficulty sleeping.

Medical marijuana is sold under catchy names like Space Queen, Blue Dream, Purple Urkel and Train Wreck, and health-conscious users are gravitating toward vaporizers rather than smoking.

It will seem strange at first to have marijuana sold in storefronts rather than alleys. But the product is more likely to be pure and safe, Erpenbach said. Doctors already can approve much stronger drugs, and this would be another form of medicine.

The law prohibits users from driving or operating heavy machinery, and from smoking at their jobs, on public transportation and at schools, jails or youth centers, among other locations.

It's a waste of precious jail space to lock up any pot smokers, especially when you consider that predatory swim coach Daniel Acker was somehow allowed to be tanning in Florida while he awaits sentencing for molesting children. Let's keep our focus on the real criminals.

I know, I know: People with a marijuana orientation threaten the sanctity of the marriage of humans and alcohol. But it's cruel to make sick people sneak around to get the relief from pain, nausea and other symptoms when the solution eagerly sprouts from the earth.

A hearing on the bill, which was introduced with 17 legislative co-sponsors, is scheduled for Dec. 15 in front of the Senate and Assembly health committees. Erpenback refrained from calling it a joint hearing.

Policy-makers, he said, are trying to catch up with the high level of public approval for this change.